"Diversity and inclusion has become a CEO-level issue around the world. The digital
organization of today, which operates as a network of teams, thrives on empowerment, open dialogue, and inclusive working styles. Leading organizations now see diversity and inclusion as a comprehensive strategy woven into every aspect of the talent life cycle to enhance employee engagement, improve brand, and drive performance. The era of diversity as a “check the box” initiative owned by HR is over. CEOs must take ownership and drive accountability among leaders at all levels to close the gap between what is said and actual impact."(Deloitte, 2017)
There are so many possibilities of implementing diversity management in each various parts of the company culture. It would make sense to develop a corporate strategy for diversity management, where all the company’s fields of action are included.
"The most popular solution today is training. But while such interventions are helpful, it appears that making people aware is not enough. Organizations should consider making structural changes, implementing transparent, data-driven solutions, and immersing executives in the world of bias to give them a visceral understanding of how bias impacts decision making, talent decisions, and business outcomes." (Deloitte, 2017)
For every company the audition of the status quo might give reason for action and therefore the first thing they should do is examining the present situation. Analytics can now help in identifying patterns of gender and racial bias, disparities in compensation and rewards, and bias in hiring and promotion. After that staff as well as managers should develop a strategy to realize a diverse culture in terms of
1) policies
2) systems, processes, procedures and practices,
3) organizational climate and
4) competency assessment.
Consider diversity and inclusion as part of the corporate infrastructure, just like compliance, IT, and security; it must be practiced by everyone and owned by all line leaders. Diversity and inclusion is a business responsibility, not an HR responsibility. It is essential to create awareness, in the first place! Make diversity and inclusion culture visible, communicate this strategy internally and externally.
Following, there will be some suggestions of doing this with a strong focus on internal diversity culture.
In terms of policies there is the opportunity to set guidelines or goals. E.g.
Rising the proportion of women in leading positions or
The proportional representation of diverse employees in terms of age or ethnicity.
When it comes to systems, processes, procedures and practices:
Set the guideline to have at least on diverse employee invited to an interview eg. In the recruiting process.
Write job advertisements in different languages and within those, encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds do apply.
In order to not be biased, remove pictures, birth dates, family names, gender and other private information from applications before it is passed on to the one deciding on invitations for interviews.
Offer part-time work for both, workers AND managers
Other ideas for implementing diversity are
Encouraging fathers to use parental leave, participating in raising their children by campaigns or
create a diversity office and appointing a Chief Diversity Officer (CDO)
Offer language courses other than your main corporate language
Provide approved special software for employees who are visually or hearing impaired
Probably the most effective way to pursue this strategy at a long-term view, it can be advantageous offering benefits or other compensation if specific diversity goals are met. This can be evaluated as part of performance reviews and gives incentives to employees and managers.
To conclude, implementing diversity management is not a big deal, it is actually very easy. But to do so the top management has to be aware of the topic allocate resources actively to pursue such a strategy.
Literature Review
Deloitte (2017), Rewriting the rules for the digital age. Global Human Capital Trends.
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